400 Years Old

Chapter 3 - 400 Years Old

"Michael, this monster is bad news" Zep stated with a frown, increasing his grip on his sword, "Yes, and I'm not gonna let you hurt him" Michael replied, taking a sword stance with his mace in hand, "Sigh, Michael you'll regret this later" Zep sighed in acquiescence to leaving John alone, but his words had a hidden undertone

Hearing this, Michael put down his mace. It was still in his hands, though, and turned off his aura. Suddenly, Arnold charged at him and pierced his heart. Seeing this made John and everyone else's eyes widen in shock

'Could it be... Arnold and Zep are in cahoots with each other?!' John deduced, he speculated, that Zep and Arnold were working together to kill Michael, based on what he saw he could tell Michael and Zep were the strongest in the hunting party, but Michael had the advantage of Primary Magic, so John knew Michael was the leader of the group not just based off of strength but also the way he commanded the party during the wolves attack he clearly had authority over them

It could be that Zep and Michael had some kind of fight beforehand, causing him to have hatred against Michael, but Zep seems like a calm and collected guy and wouldn't act out on his emotions so impulsively, John could only settle on that hypotheses for now, since it seemed likely to happen

"Arnold, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" Aron screamed, pulling out an arrow and shooting it at him, causing Arnold to block the arrow with his sword. In response, Aron pulled an average length dagger from his back pocket

"Guys, Guys, calm down, no need for conflict," Zep said with a frown, making a calming gesture with his hands. Before turning to Arnold, "As for you…" Zep then took his sword and bisected Arnold, Arnold facial expression wasn't that of sadness but honor, almost as if he knew his death would contribute to a greater purpose

"Oh my god!" Sonya cried out, falling to her knees and crawling towards Michael's cold corpse, "Michael, Michael please you're just acting right?!" Sonya kept banging on the ground, tears flowing down her face like a water fountain

"Sonya…" Aron said with some pity for Sonya, slowly he walked towards her putting his hand onto her shoulder, "I'm sorry for your loss" Aron said sympathetically, "Get the fuck off me!" Sonya shouted, slapping Aron's hand from her shoulder, crying even louder

'Jesus, so dramatic, the guy just dropped dead no big deal' John thought, ridiculing them in secret, "It's better to keep the Cold Tooth Tiger for now, once we arrive to the village then we kill him" Aron suggested, getting over Sonya's outburst against him

"Good Idea Aron" Zep complimented, putting his sword back into its scabbard, and just like that the 5-man hunting party was reduced to a mere 3-man crowd, this could be marked as the worst loss's a hunting party from the village as suffered, even Michael died

Thinking of this caused Aron to sigh in sadness, "We're going to get an earful from the village" Aron lamented, "Sonya, get up Michael's dead, get over it" Zep calmly said straight forwardly, walking away from her, Aron looked back at her one more time before following Zep

John followed in suite

…

"Oh, one of them died, interesting" Granny Griselda said in interest, she had placed a tracking device on Zep and Arnold, "These Hive Mind Beetles are truly something else" She snickered, turning off her crystal ball that was watching how Zep mercilessly killed Arnold without any emotion

That's right, Zep and Arnold are being controlled by a Hive Mind Beetle, Hive Minds are beings that love to have control over other species, they love dominating them as well, it's their fetish

Granny Griselda of course knew this, but didn't do anything about it, not that she could anyways, she is 400 years old, all she can do is watch till the bitter end, she is close to the end of her life span its great to see how the village will end up

Walking into another room, she pressed a button that was on the wall of the room, suddenly the ground under her started lifting her like some kind of bootlegged elevator, slowly the ceiling above her opened up. Making her through the hole opened up in the ceiling, she was back in her small hut in the village

She had just come out of her secret laboratory, the place where she observes some disturbances in Desolate Thistle Island, she had spent a good part of her life span on this Island

In truth the island was around the size of Africa, most of it has remained unexplored, the explored parts that are marked as dangerous are called Dead Zones because once you venture into them, you're dead

The village could be considered less than 1% of Desolate Thistle Island, Granny Griselda was sent on a mission to Desolate Thistle Island

To watch it and make sure the leading powers of the Island weren't planning anything, since that time was during the war, the main land was in dire straints they didn't want to get surprised attacked, so they deployed multiple mages all rank 3 to go and monitor it

Once the war was over, the main land slowly forgot about the mages they had deployed in Desolate Thistle Island, now Granny Griselda lives in it now, Granny Griselda speculates that one of her old friends released the dangerous Hive Mind Beetle because they were in some kind of danger

She recalled being told that they can only use it in dire situations, you could call it their trump card, luckily it had remained dormant for a long time, for some reason it's decided to attack now, clearly it came to the village looking for her

"Granny Griselda, they've come back!" A young voice sounded through her door in her small hut, "Coming, I'll come and greet them" Granny Griselda replied lightly, doing her weak old lady act, the villagers just see her as a harmless old lady, she's been living in this village for a long time, but thanks to some magic of hers she can wipe their memories, to them, she's just been in this village for a few decades, not centuries

Walking out of the hut, she was greeted by a handsome blond young man with a large smile on his face, extending his hand out as if expecting Granny Griselda to take it, "Oh Edward, I keep telling you I don't need a caretaker. Tell that old fool I don't need any help!" Granny grumbled, clearly annoyed. The old fool she was talking was the village chief, you could say they were childhood friends. In other words, the village chief was a simp

The reason she was called to greet the hunter's back from their hunt is because she's a healer, she is over 400 years old being able to heal wounds is nothing but a mere insignificant part of Granny Griselda, as long as you're not dead under her care you're bound to live

When Zep and the rest of the group had arrived at the village gate, the villagers themselves were surprised even Michael had died, of course they need to bring the best healer to examine each and every one of them, these guys are one of the strongest in the village, not to mention they could have brought back some disease from the hunt not to mention receiving the news of Michael's death, the village for now was on high alert when taking care of these hunting party members.

…

"Ok. Tell me slowly what had happened again" The guard that was doing his routine rounds around the village, happened to come across Zep and the rest of the group, seeing that they were missing Arnold the sword prodigy and Michael the strongest person in the village, clearly he wasn't an idiot its obvious something happened, so he asked them what happened

"When we were hunting, we were attacked by Vermilion Blood Wolves, luckily we fought them off but as we were cleaning up the remains of the battlefield, Arnold suddenly came and killed Michael, I assume some kind of unspoken conflict happened between them, then this Cold Tooth Tiger from the dead zone come and attacked us because of the blood from the battlefield" Zep narrated, breathing quickly as if he was exhausted, clearly he was acting, but no one in the hunting could refute most of the things he said had been true, besides the last part, but they didn't pay attention to it, thus no one had addressed it

Unbeknownst to anyone, The Cold Tooth Tiger shed a small tear from its left eye, 'FUCK YOU BASTARD, I WON'T DIE I WILL LIVEEEE!' He cursed in his mind, suddenly Zep felt a chill climb up his back

'Strange' Zep thought, not taking it to heart, before ordering the Guard to call the people from the village to come and welcome them back, Some time later an old short man with hair covering his entire body besides his legs walked out of the gate with 2 people that were dressed the same way the previous guard was, clearly these 2 were also guards

"Sonya, tell me what happened" The man ordered, walking closer towards the group, "What Zep says, it's true, all true" Sonya responded, sniffling a bit at the loss of Michael, clearly she wasn't in the right mind set, if she was normal, and was paying attention to what Zep had said she would have denied it and corrected some parts

" Interesting, call Griselda, as for you guys for now you're on quarantine, you can not enter the village until Griselda gets back, you're too dangerous to be let back inside" The old man ordered, this old man was none other than the village chief, as he ordered the 2 by his side went into the village to go and fetch Griselda, the village chief followed in suit, going back into the village as well

After a few minutes of waiting, an old lady walked through the gate of the village, "Come with me" She ordered, making a following gesture with her arm, giving a dirty glare at Zep before walking back inside the village and to the infirmary